Appointments

On the move: appointments update 21.09.17

By Business & Finance
21 September 2017

In association with Next Generation, Business & Finance highlights notable new appointments at Bibby Financial Services Ireland, Fenergo, Ludgate Hub, Accreate and Shaw Academy.

Mark O' Rourke BFSI

Mark O’Rourke

Mark O’Rourke, Head of Business
Bibby Financial Services Ireland

Bibby Financial Services Ireland (BFSI) has appointed Mark O’Rourke as Head of Business.

In his new role, Mark will be responsible for running the Irish operation, which helps businesses to thrive and grow in domestic and international markets by providing bespoke financial assistance and a wide range of specialist and working capital-funding options. The company’s funding portfolio includes invoice discounting, factoring, export finance, foreign-exchange services and specialist funding for a range of sectors.

Mark joined Bibby Financial Services Ireland over a decade ago and in that time he has held a variety of operation and commercial roles. His most recent position was Head of Risk, a role he held for over four years and which provided key insights into a range of geopolitical events such as Brexit and its potential consequences on Irish SMEs.

Bibby Financial Services Ireland is part of Bibby Financial Services Group, an independent financial services partner to over 10,000 businesses across 13 countries. The Irish operation was established in 2006 and has an expert team of 30 employees based in Sandyford, Dublin.

Michele Shepard, Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)
Fenergo

Michele Shepard Fenergo

Michele Shepard

Fenergo has confirmed Michele Shepard joins the firm as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO).

Shepard is an enterprise software veteran who has managed complex global organisations through stages of rapid growth and profitability throughout her 20-year career. In the newly-created role of CRO, Shepard will be responsible for all facets of revenue generation and strategy. She will oversee the growing global sales and marketing organisation and devise strategies that will drive continued global sales and customer value.

Before joining Fenergo, Shepard was SVP Sales & Marketing and Chief Revenue Officer for Vertafore Inc., the largest provider of technology for the insurance industry in the United States. She played a critical role in value creation, culminating in a successful sale to Vista Equity Partners and Bain Capital for $2.7 billion. Prior to this, Shepard held various management and executive-level positions during a 12-year tenure at Gartner, Inc., leading Gartner’s global financial services sales organisation.

Greg Watson, Managing Director of Sales & Strategy
Fenergo

Fenergo also announced the appointment of Greg Watson as Managing Director of Sales & Strategy to provide strategic direction to the company’s global sales organisation, bringing to the role a vast amount of industry experience that banks can lean on.

Greg Watson Fenergo

Greg Watson

Watson joined the firm from HSBC, where he spent seven years in a variety of roles, most recently as a Managing Director and Global Head of the Client Management Group for the Global Banking & Markets (GBM) division. In this role, he was responsible for building out a client-facing organisation to manage client onboarding and due diligence, spanning the entire product set of GBM across 35+ countries. Prior to this, Watson worked in Private Equity, in Business/Product Management for UBS Investment Bank and in various IT and transformation roles for Centrica, Reuters and management consultancy.

Adrienne Harrington, CEO
Ludgate Hub

Adrienne Harrington Ludgate Hub

Adrienne Harrington

Adrienne has worked as principal officer at the Department of the Taoiseach for the past three years, with responsibility for data protection and digital policy. Prior to that, Adrienne held roles as Head of the Secretary General’s Office and Head of ICT strategy at the Houses of the Oireachtas, as well as CEO of the Psychological Society of Ireland. She holds a Master’s in Business Studies and a Doctorate in Governance from Queen’s University Belfast.

Chairman of the Ludgate board, John Field, commented: “Adrienne has been on our radar at Ludgate for a number of years through her support of Digital Week and her pioneering work in shaping digital policy in Ireland. Her role in organising the highly-impressive Data Summit 2017 in Dublin earlier this year which set the ‘data agenda’ for Ireland and further afield for the near future is equally important. The board at Ludgate are very excited by what Adrienne can add to the next phase of the Ludgate project and we wish her the very best of luck in her new role.”

David Phelan, Managing Partner
Accreate

David Phelan Accreate

David Phelan

Accreate has appointed David Phelan as Managing Partner.

In this new role David will lead the dynamic team in Accreate, with an additional specific responsibility for leading the company’s life-sciences practice.

David joined Accreate in 2015 to build the life sciences practise, which has since become one of the cornerstones of the business. With deep relationships, specifically in the Irish market at executive and non-executive level, he is now seen as a go-to provider of leadership talent both into and out of the Irish market for both multinationals and SMEs in the pharma, biopharma and medical devices sectors.

He has specialised in life sciences for the last decade and has advised nine of the ten leading Irish-based life science companies on solving their top-talent recruitment challenges. Prior to joining Accreate, David led the research division of a specialist life-sciences executive search business.

He holds a BA in Entrepreneurship from Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology.

Mr Phelan commented: “I am looking forward to working with the Accreate’s fantastic team as we continue to deliver for our clients. We are passionate about securing senior-level executives for critical and transformational leadership roles on a retained and highly confidential basis.

Our priority is always to empower clients to achieve their business objectives by delivering the best executive talent through our proven executive search process. Our industry-focused partners have a deep understanding of their sectors and the corporate landscape in which our clients operate both in Ireland and globally. Our candidate reach is global.”

David Norton, Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Shaw Academy

David Norton Shaw Academy

David Norton

Irish EdTech company Shaw Academy has appointed David Norton as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Mr Norton who will be based at its global HQ in Dublin will oversee all financial aspects of the online education business. Shaw Academy develops and delivers live online education and to date have taught over four million students worldwide.

Mr Norton’s most recent role was Director of Finance & Administration EMEA/APAC at Fleetmatics the Irish-based GPS vehicle-tracking company. He was involved in the company’s IPO on the New York Stock Exchange in 2012 which raised $132 million and the eventual sale to US telecom giant Verizon in 2016 for $2.4 billion.

Shaw Academy currently teaches 250,000 new students globally every month. The courses, which focus on developing practical skills on subjects including marketing, technology, business & wellness, are internationally accredited by the European Qualifications Framework.

Irish owned and founded by James Egan and Adrian Murphy just five years ago, Shaw Academy employ over three-hundred staff at its two main locations in Dublin and Bangalore, India and have plans to add significant numbers to the workforce in the coming months due to continued expansion.